Our RV Adventures

First off, Jan and I want to thank everyone for all the many emails and comments congratulating us on our 54th wedding anniversary. We really appreciate all the kind words.

Readers will remember that back in June I ordered these flamingos for Jan’s Flamboyance.

According to the ad, they were Made In The USA, and Shipped From California, unlike most FB stuff that usually seems to come on a slow boat from China, literally.

The shorter one is is 28” high and the taller one is 32”, so good size, too. And it would be a perfect addition to the yard.

The first Rut Roh! came 9 days later when I received a notice that the order had shipped from . . . China, via China Post.

The second came about a week after that when I clicked on the ad again, and it had disappeared, or at least the flamingos had. There was something else being sold.

But since I was still getting tracking info as it crawled across China, I was somewhat mollified.

But then about a week ago, the entire company website just disappeared, but the tracking info said the birds were now in the US and in the hands of the Post Office, so maybe things were still OK.

Then yesterday, a package showed up in the mail. It was about 14” long and about 5” square, and it was half crushed. Not a good sign all around.

And it didn’t get any better, or any bigger when we opened the package. Inside was two smaller boxes, and inside those boxes was this.

For the record, they’re about 8” tall, and not metal, but some sort of resin. And broken, of course.

Well, $^%$#%

So without telling Jan I started working with PayPal (which is how I paid) to get my money back. And though it took a couple of months, I finally got a complete refund. Then checking around I found the same ones on eBay, for a little more money, but shipping from South Carolina, verified by eBay.

So I put in my order and six days later they showed up in a much bigger box than the little pink ones above.

And this morning Jan found them waiting for her out in the living room. Which is where they stayed, since it rained all day. And it doesn’t look any better for the next few days.

Jan and I headed down to Galveston about 3pm for Saltgrass Steakhouse Anniversary dinner, after spending an hour or so driving and parking along the Seawall.

Just as beautiful as when I married her.

After I mentioned in yesterday’s blog about Amazon ‘taunting’ me with same day delivery and then not delivering, Well, after I posted the blog last night, I went to Amazon to order something for us, rather than work, and it popped up and said that if I ordered in the next 13 minutes it would be delivered between 4am and 8am this morning. Which was only about 5 hours away.

So I had to try this so I went with it. And according to the email, the package was delivered here at the rig at 5:56am. Nice.

So does Amazon read our blog and decided to make amends?

Jan wanted me to clarify something. In last night’s blog, talking about the early years of our marriage, I mentioned Jan saying this.

Jan later said she was determined for us to stay together for at least the first five years just to spite my mother.

What I left out is that my mother said the marriage would never last five years. So the above was Jan’s response.

My mother was determined that I would marry the girl who lived here.

And  yes, it was featured in Life magazine.

I dated her for about a month or so, and though she was rich, she was a little too crazy even for me.

Thought Jan and my mother settled into an uneasy truce over the years, my father was crazy about Jan, and she him.
 

Thought For The Day:

Sometimes when I’m bored, I call in sick to places where I don’t even work. I’m getting written up at WalMart next.

By the time most of you read this, it will be tomorrow, September 28th, which has the honor of being Jan’s and my Anniversary. In this the big Five Four.

54 years ago today, about 1:30 in the afternoon, Jan and I exchanged vows, rings and “I Do’s” in a little chapel on Northington Campus, the married student’s housing at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, AL.

I was wearing a suit and my beautiful red-headed wife was wearing a wedding dress that she had made herself the week before.

Along the way we had two great kids, Christopher Andrew and Brandi Leigh, and two fantastic grandkids, Piper Jean and Landon Thomas.

Jan later said she was determined for us to stay together for at least the first five years just to spite my mother.

As I said, at that time, Northington, an old Army Hospital dating from the beginning of WWII, was the married student’s housing for the University.

The long wings, making up the hospital wards, were cut up into individual one and two bedroom apartments, each with their own entrance. There was a waiting list to get in so it was a few months before we got an apartment there. In the meantime we lived in a concrete block duplex with cracks in the wall that let in daylight.

Later in the winter we got a letter from rental agency reminding us that during extremely cold weather it would be necessary to put anti-freeze in the sink, lavatory, and toilet drains to keep the pipes from freezing up . . . INSIDE THE APARTMENT.

We spent most of the winter cuddled up with our cats under the electric blanket.

And, amazingly, it all seems just like yesterday.

As far as celebrating, we’re going down to Galveston to have dinner at the Saltgrass Steakhouse there.

For the third time recently, when I went to order something this morning from Amazon, it told me that if I ordered it in the next few minutes, in this case, 42 minutes, I could get delivery between 2 and 6pm TODAY!

But as before, when I actually ordered it a few minutes later, I was told that it would be delivered tomorrow. Bummer.

I think they’re just taunting me.
  

Thought For The Day:

Don’t let anyone else ruin your day.  It’s YOUR day.

Ruin it yourself.